Jefferson Airplane burst onto the scene with their sophomore album Surrealistic Pillow (their first with Grace Slick), definitively the best album by the best band of the San Francisco psychedelic scene.
Their output was a bit spotty beyond Pillow; too many of their louder songs seem to me a chorus of muted, somewhat tuneful shouting, buried beneath a hazy, meandering clutter of sound. But they closed the decade strong with Volunteers, one last excellent album before the original band members started leaving one by one.
Although Pillow is absolutely worth hearing on its own, all the way through, multiple times, Jefferson Airplane is a band begging for a compilation—and here one is! Enjoy.
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